My results from the photographing a stranger in-class workshop. Josie and I chose to work together, because we don’t know each other well, though we have talked before.

To photograph Josie, I chose a spot by a window so I could play with the light source. The main aim of this session was to practice talking to someone I don’t know very well by getting a story out of the subject. Below are three photos from the session.

I found it really difficult to think of something to talk about when photographing Josie. People tend to cease up when being photographed and they feel very vulnerable, so it’s my job as the photographer to talk to them and put them at ease. I think we both felt a bit silly when doing this task, and we kept making each other laugh, so Josie did end up looking relaxed in the photos, however, I don’t think I have achieved the desired result of getting to know her story.

Besides this, I am happy with these photos, I especially like the last one of Josie’s eyes as I chose to use a low aperture to achieve a low depth of field, so her eyes are detailed but the rest of the image is in soft-focus. I decided to change the last two photos to greyscale because I found the colours were distracting from the composition.